Flipbook creating process.

 Today during the lesson I started creating my flipbook with the stories written for my chapbook. To create the flipbook I have used a canva website. I used my google account to log in and chose a magazine template to start creating a book.

After choosing and opening the template I have deleted all of the elements from the front page. And then started creating a cover of my book. I wasn't happy with the outcome of my previous practice and decided to make the cover with an illustration instead of a photograph. The illustration was generated by the DaVinci AI app on 17/02/2024. The image was built on a prompt - Black panther, green tyrannosaurus rex, and dragon's egg in the jungle. These are the main elements of the stories. 

I started with choosing a background for the writing, and then placing the image on the cover. To do that I clicked on "elements" in the left side menu - then looked for desired colors. I wanted it to look brighter, so I looked for a blue and green background. 

Then I added the cover illustration and looked for a nice font for the title and for my name. I used a T button on left side menu and looked for a font called White Christmas.

 I used the same font for my name and for the book title. My name is written in size 40, title is written in size 49. I am happy with the colors of the cover. It has a fairytale look, that goes with the theme of my book. 

Next I have started building the pages. First page of the book will only have my name and title, then page no. 3 will have the contents. To create the pages I moved to the next page and deleted all of the elements. Then I have added a test filed by using a T button on a left side menu and changed the text to my name and book title. I have used the font called Arimo, for my name size 40 nd for the title size 49. 

Below you can see the content list created for the book, page numbers might slightly change as last story is not finished, yet. Font used for this page is also Arimo, font size 19 - this will be used in my book in all three stories. 

For next page I have deleted the elements from the template page and looked for a background. It will be a page with the title of the first story - The egg. I used orange pastel background and the image generated by the ChatBox AI App 06/02/2024 - prompt used for the image was - 8 year old bronze hair girl on the sandy beach with a dragon, view from behind. It took me good 30 to 40 minutes to be get the image without anatomical errors. I used below image for the cover of my first story, with the title written in Arimo, size of font was 100. 

Then for the next page, I created a blank page and started copying and pasting the first part of the text from my Word document saved on a Google Drive - the link will be available at the bottom of this post. 

For the text, I used Arimo font size 19.

Later I continued adding text from my Word document and adding some more illustrations from the folder on my Desktop. I have been generating the illustrations for the past two weeks using two apps - ChatBox AI and DaVinci. I added a page box on each page and started moving elements around to make it look interesting for a young audience. 

Story 1: The egg.

 

    
 

Story 2: The scales.

   

Story 3: The tail.

The below image was generated in and ChatBox AI app - I was typing an instruction about the colour of a cake and the number of candles, unfortunately, the AI illustration apps do not recognize the numbers or positions, so I had to use a picture created and modify it in photoshop by removing some candles - the picture isn't perfect but I needed a cake with four candles.  

     

I have continued this for each page of each story, and then at the end of the book I have added a page for information about the author.

The next page I have created is an index of all of the illustrations, this needs completing as the book is not ready yet. The list will be updated every time I add a new illustration to the book. This page will include the copyright information.

On the back cover, I will add a picture of myself with all three children that became my inspiration, picture will have a description. I might add some information about the book on that page as well. This is how it looks so far, I decided to use a nice green leaf background from canva stock, as I think it goes nicely with the theme and the picture.

Later I added some elements using canva stock as symbols from the book. 

I was not happy with the front cover of the book and decided to play a little with the free designs available on canva. I have used some elements in desired shapes and a ready-made background to create the below cover, which I think is more child friendly and I am happy with it.

Link to my Word document on Google Drive -  The egg, the scales, and the tail. Marta Vlckova.